His master stroke

His master stroke

Kapil Kumar
Md, Brushman (India) Ltd

Kapil Kumar’s brush with success is palpable. The 42-year-old managing director of India’s leading paintbrush firm Brushman (India) Ltd says: “I have seen it all. My journey as an entrepreneur is literally about different shades of colour—a dull one invariably removed by a stroke of new paint.”

Today, Brushman is riding on an annual turnover of Rs 75 crore with a headcount of 500 people. “We want to retain and grow our leadership status in the paintbrush industry and touch Rs 100 crore by the end of 2008,” says Kumar.

Kumar’s first million came in 2000. “It was a moment of great joy for me,” recalls Kumar, who started his business in a small, nondescript 700 square feet outlet in Naraina with 4 people to help him. Today, his is the only company listed in the category of paintbrushes. What began as a proprietary concern in 1987 became a private company in 1993 and then got listed in 1994.

Annual paint sales in India is estimated around Rs 10,000 crore, while Rs 6,000 crore constitutes the sales in the organised sector. With industrial activity expected to boom and paint sales set to grow 10% year-on-year, it is only natural that the sales of paintbrushes will grow as well. Currently, paintbrush sales is equivalent of 2% of the total paint sales. Says Kumar: “We plan to cash in on the opportunity and capture 50% of the market by 2010.” Apart from paintbrushes, the company is also into manufacturing artist brushes, wire brushes and paint rollers.

There’s more. The company diversified its operations and entered into its first foray with cosmetics in 1996 by launching UK-based Denman’s hairbrushes in India. "The tie-up gave us the scope to expand our operations and enter the Rs 2,000-crore beauty industry,” says Kumar, whose clients today include Shopper’sStop outlets across the country and Ebony in Delhi. Subsequently it had tie-ups with other global majors including Keune Hair cosmetics, Toni & Guy, FWD, Babyliss, and the latest being US-based cosmetics player Sally Hansen.

Kumar is now putting up an integrated manufacturing plant in Pantnagar, Uttranchal, to manufacture paintbrushes, wire brushes, artist brushes and hair brushes, which will employ 1,000 people by the end of this year. He is also contemplating India’s first resident beauty university teaching all aspects of care, grooming and beauty. Time to paint the town red.